38 - The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena Read Online Free Page A

watched him, waiting for his
answer.
    Finally he swallowed. “Never seen it,” he said. “Heard about it, though. Lots
of stories.”
    I waited to hear one of the stories. But Arthur kept on eating.
    I couldn’t stand waiting any longer. “What kind of stories?”
    He swabbed at some gravy with his bread. He stuffed it into his mouth.
Chewed. Swallowed.
    “A couple of people in town,” he said. “They’ve seen the monster.”
    “Where?” Dad asked.
    “Out by the big snow ridge,” Arthur said. “Beyond the musher’s cabin. Where
we’re staying.”
    “What does he look like?” I asked.
    “They say he’s big,” Arthur said. “Big and covered with brown fur. You might
think he’s a bear. But he’s not. He walks on two feet like a man.”
    I shuddered. The Abominable Snowman sounded a lot like a vicious cave monster
I saw in a horror movie once.
    Arthur shook his head. “Personally, I hope we never find him.”
    Dad’s jaw dropped. “But that’s what we’re here for. It’s my job to find him—if he exists.”
    “He exists all right,” Arthur declared. “Friend of mine—another musher—he
was out in a blizzard one day. Ran smack into the snow monster.”
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “You don’t want to know.” Arthur stuffed more bread into his mouth.
    “We certainly do want to know,” Dad persisted.
    Arthur stroked his beard. “The monster picked up one of the dogs and made off
with him. My friend chased after him, trying to get the dog back. Never found him. But he could hear the dog whining. Pitiful howls.
Whatever happened to that dog—it sounded pretty bad.”
    “He’s probably a carnivore,” Nicole said. “A meat-eater. Most animals around
here are. There’s so little vegetation—”
    I jabbed Nicole. “I want to hear about the snowman—not your stupid nature
facts.”
    Arthur flashed Nicole an annoyed glance. I figured he was thinking, What
planet is she from? That’s what I’m usually thinking, anyway.
    He cleared his throat and continued. “My friend came back to town. He and
another guy went out to try and capture the snow monster. Darn foolish, if you
ask me.”
    “What happened to them?” I asked.
    “Don’t know,” Arthur said. “They never came back.”
    “Huh?” I gaped at the big guide. I swallowed hard. “Excuse me? Did you say
they never came back?”
    Arthur nodded solemnly. “They never came back.”

 
 
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    “Maybe they got lost in the tundra,” Dad suggested.
    “Doubt it,” Arthur said. “Those two knew what they were doing. The monster
killed them. That’s what happened.”
    He paused to butter another slice of bread.
    “Close your mouth, Jordan,” Nicole said. “I don’t want to look at your
chewed-up french fries.”
    I guess my mouth had been hanging open. I shut it and swallowed.
    Arthur seems like a weird guy, I thought. But he’s not lying to us. He
definitely believes in the Abominable Snowman.
    Nicole asked him, “Has anyone else seen the snow monster?”
    “Yep. A couple of TV people from New York. They heard about what happened to
my friend and came to town to investigate. They set out into the tundra. Never
came back, either. We found one of them, frozen to death in a block of ice. Who
knows what became of the other.
    “Then Mrs. Carter—she lives at the end of Main Street—she saw the snow
monster a few days later,” Arthur continued in a low voice. “She was looking
through her telescope and spied him out in the tundra. He was chewing on bones,
she said. Don’t believe me, go ask her yourself.”
    Dad made a noise. I glanced at him. He was trying to keep from laughing.
    I didn’t see what was so funny. This snow monster sounded pretty scary to me.
    Arthur glared at Dad. “You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, Mr.
Blake,” he said.
    “Call me Garry,” Dad repeated.
    “I’ll call you what I please, Mr. Blake,” Arthur said sharply. “What I’m
telling you is true. That